I have a confession to make. The Black Out Poem has captured my imagination. I find it interesting to take a page filled with writing and turn it into something often contrary to the original meaning. It’s like playing with someone else’s words and making them become my own. Free verse is the best way to work with this form of poetry. There are many pages of the book I selected left. I’m going by the old cliché “waste not, want not.” I plan to use Rebecca Hunt’s Mr. Chartwell until it runs out of words to create Black Out verses. The poem I called Trinity of idiots.
About the Black Out Poem and Trinity of idiots
Poet takes a black marker and redacts words until a poem is formed. It is important to note the text and redacted words form a visual poem.
Method to use
1. Identify source text. The source can be a newspaper, a book page, or written text.
2. Draw a box around keywords or phrases.
3. Make Connections between boxes. (This is optional.)
4. Color the rest in with a marker. You can use any color. The most common color used is black.
I found this style of creating a poem unique from anything I’ve ever tried before. The words are already provided, and the challenge is to make something poetic out of the text. I decided to use Mr. Chartwell byRebecca Hunt to create these poems.

Trinity of idiots It’s easy Seduction of sleep Resisting a painless embrace Consent to the descent Whisper Thawing phrase Listened to her memory “You are at war.” His warning Understood it She wasn’t demanding Unemotional Gentle A pause “This is good-bye.” A resentful smile He considered smirking “You formed a trinity of idiots.’ “Not really.”
Who is Molly Shea?
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.
Be sure to follow Molly on Twitter!
My, this is clever. You worked the form really well.
Thank you.
Nicely done, Molly! Have a wonderful week 💕🙂
Thank you.
This was great! I’m big on using the word idiot lately
Thank you.